Anandtech is dicussing AMD's Jaguar architecture.  Jaguar is going to power more gaming than any other chip outside of casual phone gaming.

Bobcat was a turning point for AMD. The easily synthesized, low cost CPU design was found in the nearly 50 million Brazos systems AMD sold since its introduction. Jaguar improves upon Bobcat in a major way. The move to 28nm helps drive power even lower, which will finally get AMD into tablet designs with Temash. Despite being lower power, Jaguar also manages to increase performance appreciably over Bobcat. AMD claims up to a 22% increase in IPC compared to Bobcat. Combine the IPC gains with a more multi-core friendly design and Jaguar based APUs should be appreciably faster than their predecessors.

You may have seen Wired's lame article on the Xbox One. Why Microsoft chose them for the launch article I don't know, but they got their fluff piece.  Anandtech has some real analysis of the console.

On the graphics side it’s once again obvious that Microsoft and Sony are shopping at the same store as the Xbox One’s SoC integrates an AMD GCN based GPU. Here’s where things start to get a bit controversial. Sony opted for an 18 Compute Unit GCN configuration, totaling 1152 shader processors/cores/ALUs. Microsoft went for a far smaller configuration: 768 (12 CUs).

Microsoft can’t make up the difference in clock speed alone (AMD’s GCN seems to top out around 1GHz on 28nm), and based on current leaks it looks like both MS and Sony are running their GPUs at the same 800MHz clock. The result is a 33% reduction in compute power, from 1.84 TFLOPs in the PS4 to 1.23 TFLOPs in the Xbox One. We’re still talking about over 5x the peak theoretical shader performance of the Xbox 360, likely even more given increases in efficiency thanks to AMD’s scalar GCN architecture (MS quotes up to 8x better GPU performance) - but there’s no escaping the fact that Microsoft has given the Xbox One less GPU hardware than Sony gave the PlayStation 4.

Remember all of my talk earlier about a slight pivot in strategy? Microsoft seems to believe that throwing as much power as possible at the next Xbox wasn’t the key to success and its silicon choices reflect that.

So here we have some real analysis.  Wired might as well have been replaced by Engadget.  Microsoft should know enough to have a real hardware site guy in the room, but they failed.  

Anandtech reports that AMD has picked up Sean Pelletier from Nvidia.

Today I just got word from a couple of very accurate and trusted sources that my old friend Sean Pelletier will be joining AMD as well. Sean will abandon his role as Senior Technical Marketing Manager at NVIDIA to assume a similar role at AMD, initially focusing on GPUs.

Again.  Yeah, the Xbox One launch is uber hyped.  I'm not a big believer.  It is AMD powered however.   You can watch the launch replay here.

AMD Radeon HD 8970M, the world’s fastest graphics card for notebooks, offers gamers an unprecedented mobile gaming experience

SUNNYVALE, Calif. —5/15/2013
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today launched the AMD Radeon™ HD 8970M, the world’s fastest notebook graphics card1. The AMD Radeon HD 8970M graphics processing unit (GPU) delivers the best mobile gaming experience imaginable to gamers, powered by AMD’s award-winning Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture.

“Today’s gaming notebooks need a graphics card that is fast, powerful and energy-efficient,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit, AMD. “The AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU is the perfect combination of technologies, blending performance, immersive features and an extensive battery life that delivers an unrivaled gaming experience, even on the go.”

“When developing our new gaming notebook, the MSI GX70, we required a graphics card that would truly enhance the gaming experience. The AMD Radeon™ HD 8970M graphics card exceeded our expectations,” said Eric Kuo, vice president for Global Sales and Marketing, MSI Notebook. “Its speed, features and intelligent power capabilities perfectly complement our product. The GX70 is surely designed for professional and top tier gamers.”

Features and Benefits:

Speed: Featuring AMD’s GCN Architecture2, the AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU is built for speed and designed from the ground up to provide the best experience in the top PC games for today and tomorrow.
Intelligent Power Features: AMD’s Enduro™ Technology3 allows the AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU to optimize battery life. The power features are inherently dynamic, delivering instant performance when needed and adjusting GPU requirements when in idle mode.
Multi-Display Optimization: AMD Eyefinity technology allows for the highest quality multi-display gaming spread across several different monitors, creating an immersive experience4.
Engineered for Compute: AMD App Acceleration harnesses the compute power of the AMD Radeon™ GPU to take workload off the CPU and provide unprecedented performance in everyday applications. The AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU offers improved performance and enhanced visual effects5.
Unparalleled Image quality & Video Playback: The AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU is the ideal entertainment and productivity tool that provides smooth video playback and maximizes image quality for all of your multimedia needs.
DirectX® 11.1 Support: Offers full support for DirectX 11.1 and Windows 8 for all of today and tomorrow’s games and applications.
Supporting Resources

AMD Radeon™ HD 8970M GPU Product Page
Become a fan of AMD Gaming on Facebook
Follow @AMDRadeon on Twitter

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Key suppliers honored for technology innovation, manufacturing excellence and exceptional service
AUSTIN, Texas —5/14/2013
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the winners of its 2013 AMD Supplier Excellence Award honored at the company’s 2013 Supplier Day event in Austin. The companies recognized exhibited a strong depth of knowledge of AMD’s business as well as a demonstrated ability to perform at the highest level based on the specific needs of the company.
The annual event provides a collaborative forum to continually improve AMD’s supply chain capabilities, further define best practices and recognize supplier excellence. Additionally, given the close collaboration of AMD and its supply base, the event affords an important occasion for the company and its suppliers to align on any changes to strategy and business needs driven by emerging industry trends.
“The success of our business is dependent on consistently hitting design cycles with our industry-leading products, and choosing the right supplier is a critical part of that success,” said Alex Brown, corporate vice president of Global Supply Management for AMD. “The suppliers recognized during this year’s event demonstrated an ability to provide AMD with exceptional performance, tailored to the unique demands of our business. We thank them for their dedication and support.”
AMD’s Supplier Performance Management process measures the company’s top suppliers annually for outstanding achievement and exceptional support. Suppliers are evaluated in the categories of Technology, Quality, Cost, Flexibility and Service.
Unimicron Technology Corporation (UMTC) was named the recipient of the prestigious Supplier of the Year award. Unimicron, located in Taiwan, is a manufacturer of High Density Interconnection (HDI) boards for cell phones and notebooks, PCBs for automobiles, Flip Chip Ball Grid Array (FCBGA) and other products for the consumer electronics, portable communications and personal computer industries. UMTC demonstrated superior collaboration with AMD, which helped to distinguish them in the areas of technology leadership, supply chain performance and continuous quality improvement.
Additionally, achievement awards for suppliers that exhibited superior performance in one or more categories of Technology, Quality, Cost, Flexibility and Service included AT&T, Moduslink Corporation, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Shinko Electric Industries Co., Siliconware Precision Industries Co., and Volt Workforce Solutions.

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World’s first widely-available open source hardware platform delivers rack compatibility, open systems management and matches competitor performance at 57 percent less cost
SUNNYVALE, Calif. —5/13/2013
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced availability of servers based on its AMD Open 3.0 specification, defined as part of the Open Compute Project, delivering workload versatility and performance equal to competing proprietary OEM servers at significantly lower cost. In comparison to benchmarks running virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), the AMD Open 3.0-based system supported just as many virtual desktops and reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) by 57 percent: $4,589 versus $10,669 for just a single server. This cost effectiveness translates into a dramatic reduction in cost per virtual desktop, from $91.19 to only $38.24 per desktop. More details on the findings are available online and will be discussed at a roundtable event tomorrow in New York City and other select cities. The servers will be available through distributor partners.
“Global IT organizations have the difficult task of choosing between price and performance when investing in servers,” said Bob Ogrey, cloud evangelist and fellow, AMD. “We don’t believe organizations have to compromise one for the other. Using systems based on the AMD Open 3.0 specification – the first open source, modular platform for the masses – enables high performance and energy efficiency at a reasonable price, making it the best choice for organizations.
In May 2012 AMD released the AMD Open specification, and in January 2013 demonstrated systems based on this specification for the first time. Systems are now in full production and available through a number of technology partners including Avnet Inc., Hyve, Penguin Computing and ZT Systems. The system is part of AMD’s work with the Open Compute Project Foundation and demonstrates AMDs commitment to open industry standards, delivering the right solutions for the right problems. With the ideal combination of power, space and cost, this tailored solution is the foundation for Open Compute Server 3.0.
Powered by the high performance AMD Opteron™ 6300 Series processor, AMD Open 3.0 systems can be installed in all standard 19” rack environments without modification, as well as in Open Rack environments, and managed openly using standards such as Systems Management Architecture for Server Hardware (SMASH) from the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). The motherboard is 16” x 16.7” and designed to fit into 1U, 1.5U, 2U or 3U rack height servers. It features two AMD Opteron 6300 Series processors, each with 12 memory sockets, allowing up to 384GB of DDR3 DRAM (four channels with three DIMMs each,) 6 Serial ATA (SATA) connections per board, one dual channel gigabit Ethernet NIC with integrated management, up to four PCI Express® expansion slots, one serial port, two USB ports and a mezzanine connector for custom module solutions such as the Mellanox I/O module or Broadcom management module. Specific PCI Express card support is dependent on usage case and chassis height.
AMD Open 3.0 enables substantial flexibility, efficiency and operating cost by simplifying motherboard design with a single base product to address multiple enterprise workloads, including high-performance computing, virtual desktop infrastructure, cloud, infrastructure and storage. This innovative design is optimized to eliminate features typically over-provisioned in traditional server offerings. The platform is designed to easily enable IT professionals to customize the server to meet specific workload requirements. Learn more about AMD-based Open Compute here.
AMD, along with Broadcom, Quanta and others, will host an invitation-only customer and partner roundtable on May 14 in New York City. Please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you are interested in attending.
Supporting Resources
AMD Open 3.0 Web Site

AMD Open 3.0 Specification

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Tech Report has details about AMD expanding the Never Settle Bundle by adding Tomb Raider to the 7900 and 7790 series, and Crysis 3 to the 7870.

Fudzilla reports that Richland desktop parts are now available in Europe.

The A4-4000 is a cheap Richland based dual-core and it is already available in Europe. It was listed a last week and it goes for about €40, depending on the market. In the US it should go for $40. As the price suggests, it’s an entry level chip, clocked at 3.0GHz. It can hit 3.2GHz on Turbo, but it has just 1MB of L2 cache.

Bjorn3D-Diamond HD7790 Graphics Card

The HD 7790 we have today is admittedly a mainstream model which as we know are the real money makers in graphics products due to the nice price/performance ratio. We will also admit that we don’t really get revved up with mainstream cards normally simply because we like fast cards. That being said, 7790 cards has been quite a surprise for as they have been very overclockable, while also delivering very decent gameplay on most titles at HD resolutions.

Madshrimps- PowerColor Radeon HD 7790 TurboDuo 1GB Video Card Review

The new Radeon HD 7790 TurboDuo 1GB card from PowerColor features overclocking from the factory and a custom cooling system with two fans and a heatsink with a single heatpipe. The fan speed profile was tuned for achieving good temperatures and by raising the clocks even further from Catalyst Control Center, we can squeeze the last performance drop from the card.

PureOC-Sapphire 7790 Dual-X

The Sapphire 7790 Dual-X comes with a custom cooler cooler and a factory overclock that reaches over 1GHz. What’s particularly enticing is this Sapphire card also qualifies for the popular AMD promotional offer that tosses in an A+ gaming title in Bioshock Infinite worth $60 into the package. That sounds like an excellent deal, even if the performance isn’t terribly groundshaking as a more budget-oriented card.

Tweaktown-Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 2GB OC Edition Video Card Review

While some of video cards we've looked recently haven't come with a package, the Sapphire HD 7790 2GB OC does. From here we'll take the time to look at the box to see what's going on with it and the contents, after that we'll move onto the card itself, take a quick look at the specifications, go over our testbed and the cards you'll see in our graphs today, before finally getting into the performance.

Anandtech-MSI GX70 3BE: Richland A10 APU and Neptune 8970M Gaming Notebook

This is one of the more interesting pieces of hardware to keep an eye on if you're looking at a reasonably priced gaming notebook. I've toyed around with MSI's GX60 notebook a bit, and while I won't have a full review (it's too late to be useful), I will be posting benchmarks in the near future. Well, GX60 is about to become the old news, as the MSI GX70 3BE specs are now posted at MSI's website. Here's the quick overview: